Despite Neil Tennant’s best attempts to underplay the significance of the Pet Shop Boys to gay culture, they were a beacon of light for a generation of gay men.

The music of ‘PSB” was a vital soundtrack for gay men during the dark periods of the 1980s and 90s when AIDS cut a swathe through an LGBT community under siege from right-wing politicians and religious zealots trying to blame gay men for the advent of the disease.

Born in 1974, Michael Griffiths had to navigate his sexuality, school, peers, sex and relationships in the thick of the period of Grim Reaper advertisements and red ribbons.

His new show It’s a Sin: Songs of Love and Shame, directed by Helpmann Award winner Dean Bryant, is Griffiths’ deeply personal musical journey from 1987 to the present as a gay man and artist.

Michael Griffiths: It’s a Sin. Photo © Claudio Raschella

The gay dilemma that Griffiths and all gay men face is encapsulated in a nutshell in the first verse of the title song:

When I look back upon my life

It’s always with a sense of shame

I’ve always...